Duncan Smith: War on terror funds

8:18PM BST 25 Sep 2001

BRITAIN must go to war on the criminal activities that help fund terrorism, Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said today.

Mr Duncan Smith gave his first major speech as Tory leader addressing the annual Carlton political dinner in London. He drew links between Osama bin Laden, and Irish paramilitaries, both of whom he said gained some of their funding from crime.

He called for a war on the "mafia sub-culture" created by republican and loyalist terror groups in Northern Ireland, which allowed both sides to fund violence through racketeering, intimidation, smuggling and drug-dealing.

Mr Duncan Smith also called for urgent action to amend the Human Rights Act - which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into British law - to ensure that the UK cannot be used as a refuge by those promoting terrorism. He said that last year's Terrorism Act had been "seriously compromised" by the Human Rights Act.

Mr Duncan Smith paid tribute to President Bush for rallying the world to the fight against terrorism with his "brilliant" speech to Congress. And he endorsed Mr Blair's decision to declare that Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with America.